A quarter hour is a period of fifteen minutes. A quarter of an hour, in fewer words.
Clocks have made it one of the natural units of the day, and a chiming clock strikes the quarter hours. Billing uses it, since some professions charge in quarter-hour blocks, and public transport timetables are often built on it. English usually says a quarter of an hour in speech and quarter hour as a modifier, so a quarter-hour delay is the natural adjective form.
1nounquarter hourA period of fifteen minutes.
“The bells sound every quarter hour.”
Practised in Time & Calendar, A Man Called Ove
First appears in chapter 14 of A Man Called Ove.
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